toys

In his seminal 1939 book, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, Johan Huizinga places play as the central element in any flourishing society. In an increasingly gamified, but also risk adverse, educational environment and culture, how are we to think the role of play today? This course will take up both …

I'll be teaching a course this summer on "Objects of Play," in the strange hope that if we looked at the things we play with, we might surprise ourselves. We'll be looking particularly at the large scale toys—ladders, oil barrels, etc.—at play in the early childhood education of Anji, China.
I am reminded of my …

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As an artist friend of mine pointed out in response to this photo:
On BBC crime shows, an abandoned children's toy is always a metaphor for "something horrendous happened to a child."
Which got me thinking. What is it about this? If it were simply a question of restraint or reserve—a discomfort in showing …